The Hearts of the World (campaign)
"The Hearts of the World" is the placeholder name of the campaign in which we are playing. While the name is shared by artifacts within the campaign, and the campaign is seemingly centered on these artifacts at this time, the scope of the campaign is by no means limited to these artifacts. Pre-Campaign: Setting the Scene About a hundred years before the campaign took place the Dark Lord Yuan ruled over the land. He ruled the land harshly with strict and extreme laws. It was then that the first Keepers of the Hearts defeated him and trapped him inside the Heart of Darkness. After his defeat the weilder on the Hearts of the Ocean transported the surrounding land to the sea and made it as an island. On this island cities were founded that would stand to guard against the possibility of the Dark Lord ever reawakening. The Keepers of the Hearts went their seperate ways and lived out their lives on the island. The Dark Lord stayed safely sealed away unitl the present. Prologue: Rise of the Darklord At the city of Mos Einsam, on the anaversary festival celebrating the fall of the Dark Lord, a rag-tag group of potential heroes heard rumor of party-goers suddenly dissapearing. Following this investigation, they ended up becoming framed for a crime they actually had put an end to, and found themselves face to face with mayor elect MacElroy. They become frightfully aware of his plot to secure the position of Mayor in the upcoming election, and are attacked - by undead apparently under MacElroy's control. The party fended themselves off, and stole away into the woods with the unconcious MacElroy, and an innocent whitness to the fiasco, the Crow Lady, MacElroy's front desk attendent. In the woods, the seemingly submissive MacElroy turned into a demon, and summoned more undead at his command. As MacElroy's new form was destroyed, the entrails of the demon came to life, and ran toward the city. The party captured the animate organs in a bag, and followed where they lead. The organs traveld deep into the city of Mos Einsam and underground where they met up with cultists. After fighting their way through the cultist and rescueing two victims of cultist experiments the party found two men plotting an attack on the Citadel in Mos Einsam one of which was masked though his voice seemed vaguly familiar. With this knowledge they prepared to defend the Citadel. An assemblly was held in front of the towns people for the ceremony that would open the long closed Citadel. Before the ritual could be completed MacElroy was struck with a dagger from one of the adventurers. This caused the head of hte church to summon a fire ball that blew open the gate of the Citadel. The party fought deep into the heart of the Citadel. Eventually they cornered a man, a man familiar to Gabriel Yuan. It was his father figure, the man who had highered Samarjit to train the boy and also one of the leaders of the clergy. He warned the party not to enter the final chamber, that to do so would surly bring the end of the world as they knew it. With much urging from Gabriel the party did not heed that warning. It was soon revieled that Gabriel was a Deva and a re-incarnaition of the Dark Lord. When the Heart of Darkness, located in that final chamber, was touched by Gabriel he was over come by the dark power and became, once again, the Dark Lord Yuan. Using Gabriel's voice the Dark Lord took over Samarjit's mind and forced him to fight opposite the rest of the party. The gruling battle ended as the last party member fell dead. Those who had fallen behind ran into the room just in time to see both Samarjit and the Dark Lord vanish. Luckily for the fallen hero Azarius the remaining party memebres were able to bring him to a Cleric in time to pull him from the realm of death. None of the others were as lucky nor as willing. Heroic Tier: Finding The Hearts Two years after the events at Mos Einsam, the Dark Lord Yuan has unleased an army of undeath upon the land. The Nation of Raquet issued a full-scale evacuation of their nation, leaving only the military and the destitute to fend off the city. Austragauth likewise entered into a state of toal war with the forces of Mos Einsam. Fearing war and the plague of undeath, the people from accross the countryside fled to the deep forests or the major port cities of Raquet and Austragauth to find a haven; with the ports predominantly inactive, most of the island was trapped with the dark forces at hand. Melody, Tariseth, Minharath, and Azerius continued to fight the forces of undeath, and made their headquarters at the Fort of Halfway. Princess Vira and Gabriel (reborn in a darker form) united with these adventurers, and found the hidden message from the King of Raquet, which revealed the exsistance of the Hearts of the World, and granted them clues to their wareabouts. The first Heart they sought was the Heart of the Ocean, which lay in a tower beyond the halfling village in the swamps. En route, the heroes visited the floating halfling village, and recieved the blessing of their elder mystic, who left the party with a warning of the dangers that lurked about the Heart of the Ocean. As the party approached the tower, they found it surrounded by undead. Though, they were outnumbered, the party found new allies: Udu, Oventair, Vyre (who had been presumed dead), Roughwind and Duaurum Alio. Overcoming the undead, they entered the tower, which had been the hideout of Alio, and was infused with the essences of air and water. After overcoming the trials in the tower, they obtained both the Heart of the Ocean, which bonded with Udu, and the Heart of the Sky, which bonded with Melody. Roughwind and Vyre disappeared shortly after this adventure. Exiting the swamps, the party looked northward to the mysterious forest kingdoms of the elves, where legend said the Hero of the Forest Selandria departed from the world. Entering the forests, the party quickly found themselves lost - the forest was enchanted, and the adventureres shifted from the mortal realm to the Feywild in the blink of an eye. It did not take long before the heroes knew that they were not a lone in the forest. But the shadows appeared to be long-lost potential allies: Nala, the Crow Lady, Guardian, Gimble and character's name. They also had heard of the Hearts, and for the time agreed to work together to find the Heart of the Forest. When they found the temple sanctuary, Selandria - now a primal spirit - issued the challenge of the Law of the Wild, to determine who would recieve the Heart. With this, Nala attacked Minharath to win the heart. Minharath discouraged her senseless violence, but Nala said that the elemental fusion she had experienced at the hands of the cultists mean that she needed to have the Heart - like it food to a starving man. Minharath folded, and gave Nala the Heart of the Forest. With the blessing of the primal spirit Selandria, the heroes traveled to the forsts's edge of Raquet within moments, and as per the King's orders, they went to see him with Hearts in hand. When they got the city, however, the city gates were barred. After getting the attention of the guards, the party was granted entry to the city, but were surrounded by Raqueterian guards. That is when the party noticed that they were not being taken to the castle, but a remote location within the city; the royal army was no longer in control of most of the city. They were taken to a temple of Light, and where they were put in the presence of the King of Raquet. The King revealed many shocking truths: the forces of had Yuan take over most of Raquet because half of the Raqueterian army had defected to follow Prince Fetu. When asked about the Heart of Light, the King conceded that he no longer posessed it, and he suspected that it had now chosen Prince Fetu. This story was also accompanied about the truth of the King's sins and Samarjit. Tensions in the room quickly flared flared out of control, resulting in petty voilence at points. The King gave Vira a key to the Shadow Road, a secret entrence into the castle from the Shadowfel, for use when Vira and company hopefully left to regather Raqueterian forces to reclaim Raquet. The party set out to Fort Halfway to recover any hint of where the Raqueterian army may be. What they found was that the army was performing a joint operation against Mos Einsam with the dragonborn forces led by Captain Ragdar Astrates. The party marched to their locale with post-haste. Vira approached her brother, and Gabriel, finding the coincidence at hand uncanny, met with Ragdar. Ragdar and Fetu both expressed that they were outmached by the undead forces so close to the Citadel, and that their soldiers were losing morale and supplies quickly. But when Gabriel and Vira reveal that the Hearts of the World might be lead to their salvation, the leaders begin to hope. Gabriel gives Ragdar his son's old sword, and tells him of his bravery unto death, and Ragdar's will is rekindeled, and the Heart of Flame joined with Gabriel. (Gabriel also, at this point, was liberated of his dark feelings in reguards to his fallen friend, and retook his clerical oaths.) Fetu sees something in his his sister Vira that she does not see in herself, and gives her the Heart of Light. As the leaders begin to yell new words of hope to their war-brothers, they withdraw from Mos Einsam and seek to liberate Raquet. They attacked the city with the following strategy: the armies would eliminate the masses of undead and make their way to the castle, and the heroes with the Hearts would infiltrate the castle, disabling the seat of power. But the days of separation have changed the status quo with Raquet: After a feirce battle to enter the city, the heroes found that the King no longer resided in his secret hideout - it was apparently infiltrated. The heroes used the magic key to enter into the Shadowfel - the dark reflection of the mortal world. They found themselves in the dark version of the Temple where they activated the key, and travelled down a dark hallway for quite some time, but found themselves in a strange and twisted city. Azerius revealed that this was the lost necropolis Moil, which once rested on the mortal world where Raquet stood. At the center of moil, the heroes found the ruins of a castle, and using the key in the heart of the ruins, they found themselves inside the castle of Raquet. The towns people were inside the castle, apparently beseeching their "new king" to save them, and brought him offerings of all sorts. The heroes burst into the throne chamber to meet this "king." Vyre wore the crown of Raquet, Roughwind greeted them as his loyal deathknight, and the King of Raquet hung crucified above the throne. A feirce battle followed, in which it was revealed that the Heart of Dust was possessed by Vyre. Vyre retreated to the Shadowfel, and the party, seemingly victorious, revived the king. However, the demolished corpses of the minotaur guards reanimated time and time again, and the heroes were forced to flee to the rooftops. As the heroes fought against necromancers on the castle battlements, the armies had nearly reached the castle. Nala had summoned with the Heart of the Forest a monstrous behemoth with the intention of crushing through the cities defenses, but the cultists had likewised summoned some monstrous beast seemingly akin to an undead dragon, to fight her beast. Ragdar instructed his second in command Balasar to command their troop, as he charged up to the rooftops of the castle to aid the heroes in their battle against the cultists. The heroes secured the roof, then the palace gates, and by and by the whole castle and city. Noting their power and potential strategic value of Austragauth, Ragdar offered the party his leadership and guidance. They accepted, for the most part; he was likewise a valuble ally. reason they went to Austragauth. Late Heroic/Paragon Tier: Second War of the Hearts